The first reference made to Montague in our engineering department
records is a letter dated July 1, 1863, written by T. D. Judah, des-
cribing progress of the survey on the second division of the railroad
reaching to within six miles of the Sierra Nevada summit. He wrote:

A party, under the charge of S. S.
Montague, Esq., are in the
field making a permanent location of 2nd division."

Montague was working as a location engineer under Judah at that
time, so it seems likely he was with Central Pacific from its beginning,
or very nearly so.

Annual reports
show that Montague was acting chief engineer in
1864 (after Judah's death), 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869 and was chief
engineer in 1870 and until his death September 24, 1883. He was succeeded by
William Hood, October 10, 1883.

Suggest you look in Sacramento papers of September 24, 1883,
or a day or two later, for write-ups in connection with the death or
funeral. If you find anything definite that would be of interest to
us, we'd like to have it.

Thanks, and good luck to you. You seem to keep quite busy in
your retirement.